Oct 29 (Reuters) - TE Connectivity ( TEL ) issued an

upbeat first-quarter forecast on Wednesday, after beating Wall

Street estimates for quarterly profit aided by strong demand for

its artificial intelligence-focused products.

Demand for AI-related products and hardware in the U.S. has

spurred huge investments from Big Tech companies and Silicon

Valley startups as they race to bank on AI technology behind

services such as ChatGPT.

"We are going to continue to have the AI momentum next year,

we continue to see program ramps there and the energy

infrastructure build-out in the United States," CEO Terrence

Curtin told Reuters in an interview.

Adjusted profit per share for the first quarter is projected

at about $2.53, compared with analysts' expectations of $2.17

per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Curtin said the company's annual revenue tripled over fiscal

2025 on AI products alone and that it also had a bump down

effect throughout its non AI-cloud products.

Fourth-quarter sales in the company's industrial solutions

segment, which makes electrical connector systems and components

used in factory automation and other industrial equipment

including data centers, surged more than 34% year over year.

The infrastructure that TE's customers are trying to put

into place to be able to keep up with the software that's needed

by large language models is still in "catch-up" mode, Curtin

added.

For the fourth quarter ended September 26, TE Connectivity ( TEL )

reported an adjusted profit of $2.44 per share, beating

analysts' estimates of $2.29 apiece.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $4.75 billion, compared

with estimates of $4.58 billion.